Women in Physics and Their Scientific Contributions A Historical Review Physics Dept. Undergraduate Seminar C. Jui, Jan 19, 2017 Based on previous version given in 2005 http://www.physics.utah.edu/~jui/women_in_physics.pdf 1 Women in Physics Faculty Positions • Graph shows % of women faculty in ~1985 physics by country • Any Patterns? • Communist countries? • Catholic countries seem to have higher % of women in physics than predominantly Protestant Countries ??? 2 10 years hence • Things had improved and are continuing to improve, but the U.S. still has a long way to go: Only about 10% faculty members are women Compared to Spain where that fraction is closer to 25% (but only 3% are full professors!) 3 Explanation? • Some explanations were offered by Prof. Giulia Pancheri of INFN- Frascati during a conference in Helsinki, 2003. http://www.lnf.infn.it/theory /pancheri/helsinki_w.pdf • At the start of the Age of Enlightenment when science and technology were advancing rapidly, most research work was done or sponsored by royalty/aristocracy, performed in the private laboratories. 4 Early Women Physicists/Astronomers • In this private/court setting, women participated along side their male siblings and spouses: • Sophie and Tycho Brahe (Astronomical data from which Kepler developed his three Laws of Planetary Motion) • Caroline and William Herschel (discovered Uranus and many comets) 5 Research Shifts to Universities • During the 17th Century, research activities shifted from private laboratories to universities. • Universities did not admit women: The elite women became excluded! • Examples of U.K. and U.S.A. provided by Prof. Pancheri 6 The Reformation • The Reformation brought about the dissolution of convent schools: these were in many instances the only educational resource available to women • King Henry VIII ordered convent schools destroyed: established “public” schools (male only!) King Henry VIII Martin Luther 7 Laura Bassi: Prodigy of Bologna • Received a Ph.D. and was appointed faculty member at University of Bologna in 1732 (she was 21 years old!) • University of Bologna was the first University in the world (established 1189) • Laura Bassi, an experimental physicist, was the first female college instructor of any kind in Europe! • She was also the second woman ever to receive a doctorate degree of any discipline. • In addition to being a professor and a researcher, she was also a prominent social hostess and mother of 8 (some claim 12). 8 Progressive Leadership • How is it that the University which could not protect its scholars from the Inquisition became so progressive? – a 70-year old Galileo Galilei, professor at University of Bologna was tried for heresy and tortured in 1633 for advocating Copernicus’ Heliocentric Model • The genius of Laura Bassi was recognized by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini (later Pope Benedict IVX), a progressive leader and a prodigy himself( received Doctorate in Law and Theology at age 19). • In addition to Bassi, he also appointed Maria Agnesi (famous mathematician and nun) to the University of Bologna in 1750*. 9 • As a “reader”, Laura Bassi Bassi’s Work lectured at the University. • Bassi had to be chaperoned (by older ladies) while lecturing in the Amphitheater (students and other faculty were all male). • Bassi had her own laboratory in which she conducted various experiments in Newtonian mechanics – she was a leading Hertha Marks experimentalist Ayrton: First woman elected • She was the ONLY woman to to the Institute experiment in electro-magnetism of Electrical Engineers in before Hertha Ayrton (~1890). 1898. 10 • Married fellow faculty member Bassi’s Science (physician) Giovanni Veratti: they collaborated on medical Luigi Galvani: Discovered the applications of electricity electro-chemical • Bassi repeated many of Benjamin basis for nerve action Franklin’s experiments, She and Veratti installed the first lightning rod in Bologna • Bassi’s work in electro- magnetism was continued by Luigi Galvani at Bologna and Alessandro Volta (inventor of the battery) at University of Pavia: both went on to become household names. 11 Challenges Bassi’s Legacy • Her marriage was decried In Italy today: by the Bolognese public - • 23% of physics professors who wanted her to be their in Italy are women “learned virgin” married to • There are more female the University physics students (both • She was criticized for undergraduate and graduate) relatively low number of than male. papers because of • All graduate candidates take interference from family the same competitive exam duties. for placement. • She did not become a full • Even now, however, the professor until age 65 in “glass-ceiling” at the top 1776. positions persists. 12 Maria Sklowdowka Curie • Born in Warsaw Maria • Arrived in Paris in 1891 for Sklowdowka university studies at the in 1891 Sorbonne. before departing for • Received degree in physics in Paris 1893, another in mathematics in 1894, and a teacher’s diploma in 1896 • 1895: married Pierre Curie: who had already discovered “Piezoelectric Effect” and was to submit his Ph.D. thesis on magnetism (“Curie’s Law”: M=CB/T) the same year. Pierre Curie 13 • In 1897 Mme. Curie started Radiation her Ph.D. thesis research on a systematic investigation of “radiation” discovered by Röntgen and Becquerel. • Becquerel’s discovery of ionizing radiation from uranium was not met with Wilhelm Röntgen Henri Becquerel excitement. He reported it at l’Académie des sciences on a Mme. Curie had at her routine Monday meeting disposal the where his colleagues listened piezoelectric electrometer, invented politely and then moved on by spouse Pierre and to the next item on the his brother Jacques, for agenda the measurement of very weak currents 14 • Very early in her work, Mme. Curie Surprising Results discovered that thorium gives off the same radiation as uranium • She also observed that the amount of radiation depended only on the amount of U or Th atoms present, independent of the chemical compound !!!. • Pierre abandoned his own research and joined her in radiation research • She went on to look at ores with U and Th. In pitchblende, they found evidence of much more radioactive components. Source: Lecture by Nanny Fröman to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, February 28, 1996 15 Discovery! • They soon isolated what appear to be two previously unknown elements • One is a metal chemically similar to bismuth: they named it polonium in honor of her homeland • The Curies were a true partnership: evidence by the • The second was an alkali intertwined entries in their lab metal with properties notebook. almost identical to barium: named radium. • These discoveries were submitted as Mme. Curie’s Ph.D. thesis in 1903. 16 Nobel Prize and Honor! • In the same year (1903) in which Mme. Curie presented her Ph.D. thesis, the Curies were jointly awarded ½ the Nobel Prize in Physics. • Mme. Curie went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. • In 1995 the French government honored the Curies by disinterring their bodies and reburying them at the Panthéon in Paris (near the Sorbonne). 17 Lise Meitner • Lise Meitner was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. • Austria had prohibitions against women attending universities. This was lifted in 1901 and she entered University of Vienna and studied with Ludwig Boltzmann • “Boltzmann (who committed suicide in 1906) gave her the vision of physics as a battle for ultimate truth, a vision she never lost.“ (Otto Frisch, nephew) 18 Work on radioactive substances • Meitner received her Ph.D. in 1907. And went to work with Max Planck at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. • She collaborated for 30 years with Otto Hahn on radioactive substances. • Hahn and Meitner were both headed separate sections: Meitner worked Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in their on the physics and Hahn Laboratory in on the chemistry. 19 • Meitner moved to Sweden in 1938 after the Nazi annexation Nuclear Fission! of Austria. • After the discovery of neutrons by James Chadwick in 1932, researchers were bombarding radioactive elements with neutrons • Hahn found evidence of barium in the debris from James Chadwick Otto Hahn neutron bombardment of uranium • Meitner and nephew Frisch used Bohr’s liquid drop model and suggested giant resonance from neutron bombardment leading to fission. Lise Meitner’s laboratory table 20 • In 1944, Otto Hahn received No Nobel Prize the Nobel prize in chemistry, which astonished him when for Meitner! he heard About it after the end of WWII. • He was also shocked that a nuclear weapon had been constructed based on their discovery • Meitner did not received the Nobel Prize (why?)!!! • Neither Hahn nor Meitner worked on the bomb. • Ironically Meitner is often referred to as the Mother of Recommended Reading: the Nuclear Bomb. “Lise Meitner, A Life in Physics by Ruth Lewin Sime 21 • Rosalind Franklin went to one of the Rosalind Franklin few girls’ schools in London that taught physics and chemistry • She received a chemistry degree from Newham College, Cambridge in 1941. • Awarded Ph.D. in chemistry in 1945 from Cambridge for work on carbon and graphite microstructures. • Worked in Paris (1947-1950) and began working with X-ray diffraction techniques. 22 Franklin and DNA Work • Franklin returned to England in 1951 to work at King’s College, London. • She was given a lab of her own by director John Randall and assigned the task of working on DNA structure • Maurice Wilkins, who had previously worked on DNA but was not active, was on leave. On his return he thought she was a lab assistant. • Many authors mistakenly identify Wilkins as Maurice Wilkins Franklin’s supervisor • In fact the two were equals at Randall’s lab. 23 X-ray Diffraction of DNA • Famous diffraction photograph #51 (of B- DNA) that Wilkins showed Watson and Crick 24 • Franklin made by far the best X-ray diffraction photos Scientific Misconduct? • During 1951-1953 she almost solved the DNA structure: she had already measured the unit cell dimensions • She was scooped by Watson and Crick: they were shown one of her diffraction photographs along with unit cell dimensions by Wilkins.